As 3-D printing technology continues to develop, the availability and accessibility of 3-D printing systems for home and personal use have grown significantly. Moreover, as the capabilities of 3-D printing systems continue to improve, more uses for personal 3-D printing systems will increasingly become commonplace. In conventional usage, a 3-D printer typically requires a user to download, purchase, or otherwise supply a 3-D printable file defining a 3-D printable model for printing by the 3-D printer. 3-D printable models and their associated files are often made available by other users or manufacturers. The 3-D printable files may be manually designed utilizing computer-aided design (CAD) software, or generated using a 3-D scanner, photographs, and/or photogrammetric software. Thus, for an end-user to 3-D print an object, for example, something they have seen on television or in a movie, the user may search the internet for publicly available 3-D printable files resembling the object of interest. Alternatively, for the user to create the 3-D printable model themselves, typically an original object may be scanned or photographed for digital modelling, or alternatively, may be created manually in CAD software before it can be printed by the 3-D printer.
Accordingly, tools and techniques for protecting ownership of 3-D printable model through signatures and entitlements are provided.